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**U.S. Department of Justice** Office of Community Oriented Policing Services  145 N Street, N.E.  Washington, DC 20530 www.cops.usdoj.gov×  Menu  - Home
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**The Homeless Outreach Team in Wichita, Kansas - Eyewitness Accounts**
March 2019 | Volume 12 | Issue 2

According to the most recent Point-In-Time  (PIT) Count from the U.S. Department  of Housing and Urban Development,  an estimated 553,000 people are currently experiencing homelessness in the  United States of America.1 Almost two-thirds (65 percent) of the count were reported as “sheltered” while the  remaining 35 percent were reported as “unsheltered.” However, among  unaccompanied youth (36,000 according to the count), 51 percent were  unsheltered, a far higher percentage than the homeless population as a whole.  While homelessness is more prevalent in major cities, it is also surprisingly  common in both suburban and rural areas. The philosophy of community policing  can guide law enforcement in building relationships of trust with their  homeless and housed communities while reducing strain on public resources and  improving quality of life for community members and officers.

Officer Nate Schwiethale of the Wichita (Kansas) Police  Department did not expect to become an expert on the applications of  the Fourth Amendment for government interactions with the homeless; it was just  one of the consequences of the success of Wichita’s Homeless  Outreach Team (HOT). “I really think that we need more guidance on  property and safety, because the Fourth Amendment covers the property of our  homeless residents and we have a duty to them,” he said at a U.S. Interagency  Council on Homelessness event in Washington, D.C., in 2018.

	 The Wichita HOT was modeled after a similar successful  program in Colorado  Springs, Colorado. The Wichita HOT “is responsible for responding to  all 911 calls regarding homeless individuals or calls for service.”2 The team of three helps direct homeless individuals in Witchita to services and  helps people reconnect with families outside of Witchita via a 501(c)(3) fund that  is funded entirely by donations. The officers have flexible hours so as to be  responsive to calls for service. They are connected to service providers all  over the city, and they collect and publish resources for the community on  services for the homeless. 

	 Officer Schwiethale reports that since 2011, the  chronically homeless population has been reduced by approximately 900  individuals, or an astonishing 72 percent. Schwiethale has even been personally  identified as part of the team that got Wichita resident Ernest Robinson, who  was homeless at the time, into housing and then into college at Wichita State University.3 Such stories are only possible through the dedication of officers like  Schwiethale, who ensure that the philosophy of community policing extends to  the entire community, housed and unhoused alike.

References:          1. Meghan Henry et al., The 2018 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to  Congress: Part 1: Point-in-Time Estimates of Homelessness (Washington,  DC: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2019), https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/2018-AHAR-Part-1.pdf.        
2.“Homeless Outreach Team,” Wichita Police Department,  accessed February 15, 2019, http://www.wichita.gov/WPD/FieldServices/Pages/HOTTeam.aspx.

3.“Former Homeless Man Gets Associate’s Degree,  Help from WPD Officer,” KWCH, last modified September 27, 2018, https://www.kwch.com/content/news/Wichita-man-climbs-out-of-homelessness-gets-associates-degree-494557871.html.

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The Community Policing Dispatch is the e-newsletter of the COPS Office. 

The Community Policing Dispatch is the e-newsletter of the COPS Office. 

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